Melanopsin and Cone Photoreceptor Inputs to the Afferent Pupil Light Response
ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 22 May 2019 doi: 10.3389/fneur.2019.00529 Melanopsin and Cone Photoreceptor Inputs to the Afferent Pupil Light Response Andrew J. Zele 1,2*, Prakash Adhikari 1,2, Dingcai Cao 3 and Beatrix Feigl 1,4,5 1 Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 2 School of Optometry and Vision Science, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 3 Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States, 4 School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 5 Queensland Eye Institute, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Background: Retinal photoreceptors provide the main stage in the mammalian eye for regulating the retinal illumination through changes in pupil diameter, with a small population of melanopsin-expressing intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) forming the primary afferent pathway for this response. The purpose of this Edited by: study is to determine how melanopsin interacts with the three cone photoreceptor Victoria Susan Pelak, University of Colorado Denver, classes in the human eye to modulate the light-adapted pupil response. United States Methods: We investigated the independent and combined contributions of the inner Reviewed by: and outer retinal photoreceptor inputs to the afferent pupil pathway in participants with Jason Charng, Lions Eye Institute, Australia trichromatic color vision using a method to independently control the excitations of Chiara La Morgia, ipRGCs, cones and rods in the retina. IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna (ISNB), Italy Results: We show that melanopsin-directed stimuli cause a transient pupil constriction *Correspondence: generated by cones in the shadow of retinal blood vessels; desensitizing these penumbral Andrew J.
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